Adapting the boards for a broader audience Options

[Psykopath]

This has been brought up a lot recently with the revived push for new members.

Too many random BS posts (be it crude, sexual, etc.) are flooding the boards in random places. Certain threads are understandable (like in LR&AR), but to post about "tit hats" in a "Letters of Recommendation" thread is getting annoying.

I understand that this is the internet, yadda yadda, and I don't necessarily mind random crude humor...but we will not attract new members by continuing such childish e-behavior.


BUT!!!... we mods have been chastised in the past for doing such things as controlling excessive language.

SO, what's it going to be? Free for all and no new members?
or
Mods keeping things as the rules say & have a more friendly messageboard to attract newer members?

This post has been edited by Psykopath: Sep 29 2007, 12:09 AM

[impala454]

I have had signatures turned off for just about the whole time I've posted here.

As far as the categories, I think a couple of em could be redone.

-Maybe have a separate "Technical Support" forum from "The Nerdery". Rename "The Nerdery" to something along the lines of "Electronics, Computers, & Science" or "Science & Technology" or something.

-Separate "Adult Related" from "Love & Relationships". This way maybe people coming in who want to discuss relationships and participate in threads like "Dating a girl with children" don't have to sift through threads like "The tits and pussies of women.". Also, having a separate "Adult Related" forum would give the horndogs their free reign to post whatever they want.

-break up the NPR forum into kinda regional news. Maybe have "Texas", "Nation", and "World" forums. Politics would roll into those just fine since most politics would be state, nation, or world related. Then the religion part could get rolled over into another forum called "Life" or something similiar... a place to post up stuff about personal finances, buying cars/houses/etc, religion, discussions about general everyday life issues. I think a lot of the stuff currently in "Off-Topic" would fit into a "Life" forum.

-have a forum for "Quickies" or "Quick links" or something similiar. To let people who just want to post up a funny pic/vid/joke they found. So it's easier to look through them and see old posts rather than having to skim through the 5,000+ posts in the ASDF thread.

-Use the top level categories more than the two that we currently use. (i.e. "General" and "Sports")

So as a general suggestion for a layout:

CODE

Main
+Off-Topic
+Quickies
+Local & Campus Events
+Academics
+Entertainment
+Science & Technology
+Technical Help

Life
+Life
+Health & Diet
+Love & Relationships
+Adult Related

News & Politics
+Local
+Texas
+Nation
+World

Sports
+Leisure
+College Sports
+Pro Sports

Techsans.net
+Announcements & Feedback
+Buy/Sell/Trade

this is just a rough suggestion, but I think keeping the "Off-Topic" forum as empty as possible would help. the mods should all watch it and sort threads out that belong somewhere else.

just my $0.02